This does not necessarily imply that there is little conflict or that the conflict is lightweight. Two powerful forces working at cross-purposes can cause an amazing amount of destruction and mayhem even though both of them have good reasons for what they're trying to do.

Examples:

open/close all folders

Anime and Manga

Stellvia of the Universe is all about this. There isn't even a single negative character in the series — even the aliens are good. Or at least, they expressed regret after slaughtering a Keiti wing almost wholesale.

A's is the example of this trope in the franchise. The only entity that can be considered villainous is a self-defense program of an ancient artifact, which was corrupted long ago under unrevealed circumstances, while the rest of the cast only attempt to do what they believe would be best for everyone and angst heavily about having to hurt others ("It was such a small wish..."). Basically, the Team Nanoha vs. Wolkenritter is a Good Versus Good conflict.

StrikerS seems to feature a straight-up Mad Scientist villain with Jail Scaglietti until The Reveal that he was made that way by a group of old men who spent their youth fighting to stop a senseless, centuries-long war and were desperately seeking a means to prevent such wars from breaking out in the future. There is also the fact that the "Doctor" has a very family-like relationship with his Numbers and not in a Pet the Dog way: even after seeing the error of his (and their own) ways, none of the Numbers turns their back on Scaglietti, continuing to see him as a parent figure.

Lupin III: While the titular character and his gang are criminals, they wouldn't do anything really heinous, so even at their worst, the crew are Anti Villains. Their antagonist, Inspector Zenigata, is a Hero Antagonist, and their relationship can be described as an almost friendly rivalry, rather than confrontation between criminals and law-enforcement. Whenever a serious bad guy comes up, Lupin and Zenigata usually ally against him - though they always resume their antics when the alliance is no longer needed.

Note that this was absolutely NOT the case in the original manga. In the first ten volumes of the manga and at points in World's Most Wanted, Lupin was an unapologetic and reprehensible rapist, murderer, kidnapper, and arsonist. The very first volume includes scenes of Lupin raping a woman and murdering a police officer. The anime was of significantly lighter tone.

Towa no Quon: Although the group out to capture awakened children (dead or alive) is a very dark shade of gray, their ultimate goal is to protect the public. For now.

Princess Mononoke: Ashitaka was very much an All-Loving Hero, but both Lady Eboshi and San had valid reasons for their actions. The enemy samurais seemed to be bad, but then, you feel if they had been explained then they too would have fair motivations.

Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer and Chobits lack any really evil characters. There are lots of less pleasant individuals, like the cheaters in the former and the outright perverts in the later, but the closest things to villains in the storylines are concerned about victory like the protagonist or are interested in protecting other persocoms from the damage Chi could potentially cause.

In almost any sports manga/anime, there are no villains. The closest to villains are people who toy with or break the rules to achieve victory, as well as people who treat their friends or companions like crap.

In ARIA, the planet Aqua (formerly known as Mars) is populated by nothing but well-meaning, friendly people—or at least Neo-Venezia is. Every time someone seems to act in less than 100% positive manner it generally is only a matter of slight misunderstandings, which mostly get resolved quickly.

Cardcaptor Sakura has no villains either; in the first arc, the Cards are portrayed more as mischievous beings than truly evil troublemakers and are all subject to Defeat Means Friendship, and in the second arc, the "villain" is quickly hinted (and revealed at the end) to be much more of a Trickster Mentor. All the intelligent characters are presented as decent people, which underscores the "Humans Are Good" part of the trope.

Haruhi Suzumiya. There are pretty much no villains, aside from maybe, possibly Asakura Ryouko, and even then she's just a really, really, really far extremist. All forces are genuinely trying to create the world they think is ideal, and only very few seem too extremist for rationality. The Data Entity wants to just "observe"; the Organization wants to maintain the world as it is; the Time Travelers want to keep a Stable Time Loop. Haruhi herself isn't evil, just a Jerkass who wants a little more excitement, and Kyon just wants his peace. Even the Anti-SOS Brigade has somewhat stinted yet good intentions: Fujiwara wants to keep his race from being "slaves to time travel", Kuyou Suou just wants to communicate in the first place, Tachibana Kyouko just thinks the world is more ideal under Sasaki's influence, and Sasaki wants to figure out the truth behind everything. Not to mention the fact that it might even be better for Sasaki to become God.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing seems to like this trope, too, at least for most of the main characters. Save for the few like Dekim Barton, most of the characters desire for justice and peace, even if their ways of achieving it are questionable, as pointed out by Relena Peacecraft. Fortunately, Everyone Lives except Treize Kushranada, who willingly dies by his own choice, and the world achieves true peace as Relena sees it. This way, Gundam Wing is a total opposite to the Universal Century series.

Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit has a total of two human characters in it whose motivations and methods are presented as unsympathetic, and they're both one-shot. The main conflict is entirely caused by a misunderstanding by the traditionalistic/dogmatic anti villains, and the fact that their cause manages to come across as understandable when it involves child-killing speaks volumes for the tone of the series.

Star Driver is full of this. The Glittering Crux want to use the Humongous MechaLost Technology to achieve world peace (by force, but the force part is only implied and never stated outright.) Many of the Crux deplore loss of civilian life and go out of their way to prepare ways to get the innocent out of the way in the event if a crisis (such as keeping a luxury ship large enough to carry the population of a small island on hand). The only reason they're at odds with the heroes at all is the "force" part. Both parties are fully aware of this and even act as genuine friends when off of the battlefield. There are a total of two named characters who are portrayed as genuinely bad and unlikeable people in the whole of the series, which stands out for its surprisingly large cast.

Astro Boy: While minor human crooks and such may be genuinely evil, the Big Bad Dr. Tenma and related characters are just Well Intentioned Extremists. If a robot is portrayed as a villain, it's always due to a misunderstanding. This is in contrast to the rest of Osamu Tezuka's work, where pretty much everyone but the main character is always a bastard. Especially Rock.

In Fairy Tail, the majority of the major villains have reasonable and sympathetic motives. The first one is trying to release a monster so he can defeat it, which is the thing his teacher died doing; he merely wants to prove himself by surpassing her. Another notable villain was a slavemaster who spent 8 years building a tower to revive the most dangerous dark wizard in history because he was brainwashed into thinking it would bring about a Utopia. Both of these later pulled a Heel–Face Turn. Some later enemies, like the Oración Seis and Grimoire Heart guilds had guild masters and some members truly in the black morality pitch. However, most of the guild members were given sympathetic backstories and reasons for joining these guilds - like how Ultear's entire "evilness" is because of a misunderstanding in her childhood.

The closest things A Little Snow Fairy Sugar has to a "villain" would be Joe Crow, who is not so much that as just a typical bully. Ginger is fairly callous, Basil and Cinnamon are rather mischevious, Greta is a rich snob and sees Saga as a rival, but everyone else in the show is usually super-nice to one another.

Kanon. Not counting everyone who drove Mai away in the past, the worst we have are the Demons, who, despite their destructive behavior, mainly wanted to show Yuichi said past of Mai's and how they came to be, so that he can send a message to her that her constant battle with them can end as soon as she stops fighting. In general, everyone in the show is mostly good, even though a few of them (such as Makoto and Kuze) are Jerkasses in some way or another.

Digimon Tamers proves that, yes, you can have intense conflict without anyone who is properly "bad." Every Big Bad is actually trying to prevent threats to their worlds, and you can see why they consider the other side to be bad news. Even the final Greater Scope Villain is just a program acting on its orders; see Gone Horribly Right.

Momo Kyun Sword features a battle between the Celestial Maidens and the Oni Clan. While the Maidens are on the side of good and their main ally Momoko is the heroine, the Oni Clan is shown to not really be evil but a clan trying to restore their former glory and their main face comes in the form of Onihime, a young oni girl who while strong a strong rival to Momoko is closer to her friend then enemy. Even the oni king is shown to be a pretty cool guy.

Part 7 of Jojos Bizarre Adventure is founded on this. While people like Gyro and Lucy are good people (Johnny eventually comes around as well, though he's much grayer than most heroes), none of the main villains are really evil, per se. Diego wants to win because it's his job, and to fulfill his dream of being wealthy to avenge his mother. Funny Valentine, on the other hand wants the parts because he feels that they are too dangerous for anyone else, and he wants to use them to further the gain of his country and make his citizens lives better. When the main villain is a guy that Jesus Christ himself approves of, you know this trope is in full effect.

Comics

In Season 9 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Drusilia returns, sane, and seeming to have pulled a genuine Heel–Face Turn. So just what is she up to these days? She encountered a demon that feeds on trauma (the reason she is so well,) trained it to work only in that regard, and sets up a shelter for those who have been traumatized, willing to have the demon feed on them so the pain they feel goes away if they ask for it. Angel sees the whole thing as a abomination and Mind Rape, believing people must suffer for what's happened to them and that if they did not feel bad about (in his case, Angelus) there's no reason not to make amends. Faith, on the other hand, doesn't seem to have a problem with it since the people are going willingly. After Angel kills the demon Drusilia is back to being the vicious Slayer killing psychotic.

Most X-Men stories where the antagonists are humans or government forces. Barring genocidal maniacs like Reverend Styker, in most cases their motive is simply the belief that mutants should be accounted for in some way.

Gaston Lagaffe. Gaston wants to sleep, have fun, protect the environment, etc., and the people around him want him to get his work done and obey traffic laws. If Gaston thought his actions through at all, there wouldn't be any problems, but of course he doesn't.

Astro City, as a whole, runs on this as part of its optimistic reconstruction of The Silver Age of Comic Books. While there are villains and monsters and evildoers, their motives are frequently due to their own good intentions, and they are ultimately defeated by the optimistic heroes regardless. Many a villain has pulled a Heel–Face Turn after realizing how pointless and self-destructive their current paths are.

Fanfiction

The Rise of Darth Vulcan: The Mane 6 vs. Darth Vulcan. Darth Vulcan is undoubtedly a criminal, but underneath he's just a Jerkass who obtained the power of the Alicorn Amulet, and proves to be a Noble Demon, not killing anypony, keeping one's word, and keeping his Mooks well fed. The fact that he is the Villain Protagonist allows the reader to see things from his perspective. The Mane 6 are clearly defending their town from a dangerous criminal, and actually want to save Vulcan from a dangerous power that may be controlling him, but their mistakes are due to being out of their depth when dealing with someone like him.

In The Bridge, most of the heroines and heroes are fairly selfless, kind, and noble; though some aren't always soft. The villainous forces they are fighting however have their morality all over the spectrum. While some like Legion and King Sombra are undoubtedly evil, there are others. Aria Blaze and Sonata Dusk are not above Mind Control and causing Hate Plague, but do earnestly care for their group somewhat. On an even more gray example, a group of four sympathetic villains working for the Big Bad all have veryredeemingqualities and goals one might expect a hero to ask for.

WALL•E, absolutely. The villain of the film was a robot that was doing exactly what it was programmed to do by programmers who themselves just had incomplete information, and all the humans soon fell head over heels in love with the world as soon as they were jerked out of their reverie and take responsibility to work to undo their ancestors' mistakes.

Finding Nemo: Dr. Sherman took Nemo because he mistakenly believed he would not be able to survive on his own with a deformed fin, and Darla is a "fish-killer" because she is a child who doesn't know any better. The other antagonists of the film are simply mindless predators. It's worth noting that both Finding Nemo and WALL•E were directed by Andrew Stanton.

The original Toy Story. Sid is a bit of a Jerk Ass, but he's mostly just a boy who likes playing in an unorthodox way with his toys. Unfortunately, the protagonists areLiving Toys. In Toy Story 2, Al is also a Jerk Ass but otherwise is just a bit of a slob. He steals Woody as well, but considering it got him a deal with a museum that could have gotten him hundreds of thousands of dollars, it's hard to not understand why. And in Al's defense, he did try to buy Woody legitimately. Note that this trope is averted in Toy Story 3 with Lotso.

Superman vs. the Elite: Superman is definitely a good guy, but the Elite, rather than bad guys, are at worst anti-heroes; they do display actually heroic intentions, and hurting Black's team-mates typically is his Berserk Button. In addition, while the film does end on the side of Superman, his black and white views of the world are heavily questioned not just by the Elite, but Lois and the ordinary citizens who suffer every time a villain Superman has spared escapes and kills more people. Neither solution is perfect, but White is considered the better choice in the end.

In The Book of Life, the main conflict is between Manolo and Xibalba. While the former is unambiguously good, the latter is not truly evil, just lonely. Chakal is the only true villain in the movie, and he gets little screen time.

The Land Before Time: The antagonist, Sharptooth, is just acting on its predatory instincts, whereas Littlefoot and his friends are unambiguously good.

Films — Live-Action

Close Encounters of the Third Kind - although Roy Neary's wife and kids might not agree about the film having no villains given their distress resulting from his possession. The ETs originally come across as if they're auditioning for The Exorcist, scaring Gillian half to death and then abducting her infant son, although he wanted to go, and they do return him later.

Forbidden Planet. Morbius: it implies that even the worst people have good intentions

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial: E.T., the kids, and later, Keys are in the white, and want to help the alien "phone home". Almost every authority figure other than Keys is in the gray because they do not want to harm E.T. in any form, but they aren't above bringing out their guns when he and the kids escape.

Avatar. The Na'Vi are just minding their own business, and the humans just want the planet's resources to ensure their own survival - but unfortunately the diplomacy ísn't working. (Quaritchand his troops are not considered among the Gray, though)

Falling Down: The movie has an increasingly violent man angry at the world, vs. a cop with his own issues and who can deal with them maturely. There are some real villains in the latino gangbangers and the Neo-Nazi store owner, but they're secondary characters and aren't part of the film's main conflict between Foster and Prendergast.

Thirteen Days: Kenny, Bobby and JFK are the most traditional heroes, being inspiring if pragmatic figures. The Soviets don't want a war to start either, but like the Americans find themselves forced into an escalating crisis which they can't stop by themselves. The greys are the military hardliners, but even they are Well Intentioned Extremists who believe they're doing the right thing.

Ambassador Dobrynin: [To RFK] You are a good man. Your brother is a good man. I assure you, there are other good men. Let us hope the will of good men is enough to stop the terrible strength of this thing that was put in motion.

In WarCraft, with the obvious exception of the Big Bad Gul'dan, all major orc characters are shown to have some redeemable qualities, and it's made rather clear they are invading Azeroth because their own world is dying, making their motivations sympathetic. Meanwhile, humans are overall portrayed as unambiguously good and just defending themselves against the Horde's assaults.

Literature

Many Tom Clancy novels feature something like this, especially those which deal with full-scale war, like Red Storm Rising. Usually, the deal is that good, patriotic souls from different countries will struggle with each other because of the actions of one or two people (usually politicians) who are motivated by pride, fear, or ignorance. Although some villains might be delusional beyond reckoning, For the Evulz types are exceedingly rare.

An exception must be noted for Rainbow Six since the villains are Villain Protagonists for about a third of the book, utterly egocentric, and don't hesitate to kill billions at the Olympics. Even the least cynical Rainbows find them bafflingly evil.

A lot of Orson Scott Card's writing, particularly in Ender's Saga, deals with the idea that no-one is really evil, and it's all a matter of perspective. Usually. For instance, the Formics are discovered to have attacked humanity because they have a Hive Mind and didn't know each human was individually sentient. On the other end, the Descoladores of the later books are either seeking outright planetary conquest or are just too alien to comprehend. And the Big Bad of the Ender's Shadow spinoffs, Achilles, is most definitely evil.

James White's Sector General space hospital series, a deliberate attempt to write Science Fiction with both tension and a murder deficit. Any aliens who may be trying to kill you have just been misinformed.

Every character in Brandon Sanderson's works is revealed to have "good" (or at least sympathetic) motivations for their actions, though he does include a handful of geniune villains for contrast. Perhaps the most spectacular example is the Lord Ruler of Mistborn, who in life is portrayed as pure evil but is gradually revealed after death to be a very human figure who basically had unlimited power dropped in his lap and did the best he could with it while it slowly drove him mad. One of the major themes running throughout all of Sanderson's novels is that "evil" is usually a lot more complicated than people realize.

The majority of books written by Timothy Zahn don't have many evil people at all. He doesn't really set up along the good guys and the bad guys. The Empire is not all bad. The New Republic is not all good. Other people have their own allegiances. Plenty of antagonists on any side are doing what they think will be best in the long run. He does have some actually unambiguous villains, but most of them at least have solid reasoning behind what they're doing. No one ever wakes up and decides to be evil.

Zahn's non-Star Wars fiction tends to have a lot of this as well; The Conquerors Trilogy in particular features a galactic war caused by essentially a misunderstanding. The humans' standard "greet the unknown aliens" transmission is sent via radio, which causes varying degrees of pain for the non-human side of a First Contact scenario, and thus the aliens understandably interpret the greeting as an unprovoked attack. There are at least four, possibly more, distinct factions involved, none of whom act unjustifiably throughout the course of the brief but intense war that follows.

Also, there are plenty of characters who, despite a fall to Dark Side, eventually come to realize the error of their ways.

Averted with the Vagaari, who, as an entire slaver species, are one of the nastier cultures in the Star Wars EU, surpassed only by the Vong and a few others.

Most of Edgar Pangborn's antagonists are misguided rather than evil, but that doesn't prevent them occasionally causing horrific tragedies. Example: Tiger Boy, in which the semi-wild title character and a friend he meets are killed due to the belief that he is a demon.

Honor Harrington certainly does feature many an irredeemable villain — and some truly, deeply unambiguous conflicts— but it's also at constant pains to point out that this trope is in play most of the time. In fact, the first part of the series (with the Manticore/Haven war) really only has five or so really evil characters, right at the top of the enemy food chain. The many dozens of other Havenite enemies given names and faces all tend toward My Country, Right or Wrong at worst.

Ursula K. Le Guin's work tends to feature this; in fifty years of publishing, only one of her stories (The Word for World Is Forest) features any character she described as "purely evil"

Played with in the novel Miracle Monday, where Superman faced The Devil's agent on Earth. While the demon was truly evil (we get to read his thoughts to confirm it) Superman himself holds this belief, and it's because of it that he ultimately wins.

Four Sherlock Holmes stories involve this: "A Scandal In Bohemia", "The Man with the Twisted Lip", "The Noble Bachelor", and "The Yellow Face". In each case, it is revealed that there is no villain, and the apparent victim turns out to be the morally gray character.

In Doctor Zhivago, most of the characters are treated sympathetically in one way or another, even the ones who come closest to being "villains": Komarovsky has some Pet the Dog moments in spite of all his manipulative seediness, and the two main communist characters, Strelnikov and Liberius, are portrayed as Well Intentioned Extremists swept up in the fervor of the Revolution rather than malicious murderers.

In The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side by Agatha Christie, both the victim and the murderer are sympathetic, but both have fatal flaws that collectively bring about the tragedy. Heather failed to recognize how her actions would destroy Marina's happiness, and Marina poisoned her in a fit of rage without thinking.

D. D. Webb, the author of The Gods Are Bastards, has repeatedly expressed their dislike for totally evil characters (or, worse, totally evil races) in fantasy fiction, which is why the Bastardverse doesn't have any.

Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth portrays the main antagonists, the tribesmen of the North, in a sympathetic light. This is lampshaded in a conversation between the heroes while staying at the tribesmen's camp.

Even corrupt characters often had redeeming qualities. Russel, for instance, is probably the morally second-worst person on the show who isn't one of those briefly appearing or off-screen terrorists mentioned above, but even he won't let the president bomb the wrong country on the mistaken belief that they'd developed atomic bombs of their own in The Warfare of Genghis Khan and is disgusted at hearing on the news about a woman in Turkey being executed for adultery in King Corn. The worst non-terrorist character is Robert Ritchie, who even goes so far as to not seem to feel any sympathy when he hears about a secret service agent being killed in the line of duty ("crime...boy, I don't know"). Aside from some terrorists and homophobic activists, Ritchie's the only complete villain on the show. Even the Christian right are portrayed as low and mean, but not pure evil.

Once Upon a Time starts out as Black and White Morality, but as it has continued its run it has drifted ever closer to White and Grey Morality, giving even most of its most monstrous characters sympathetic backstories that give them Freudian Excuses or sympathetic motivations, and giving Character Development to at least one of them that results in her becoming vastly more sympathetic. Now we have many villains who are tragic and heroes that are flawed.

Engine Sentai Go-onger has the Gaiark, who, while they are the antagonists and at first may resemble your typical evil empire or something of the sort, are actually intent on polluting the earth to give someplace for their world's inhabitants to live, away from the dictator Yogoshimacritein. In the end, the two remaining ministers sacrifice themselves to save the other Go-Ongers and stop Yogoshimacritein. So while it was a horrible way of doing things, they had their mechanical hearts in the right place.

Star Trek: Most of the five series heavily favored this trope. The show tended not to have very many truly evil people and the ones that seemed to be would get fleshed out or retconned later to be more sympathetic. Typically most people could be reasoned with and almost everybody was just looking out for their own if they weren't motivated by nobler intentions. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine skews furthest from this trope with the Federation becoming a bit greyer and the Dominion being darker than is typical of the other series.

The one exception would be the Next Generation-era Ferengi, who were universally motivated by greed, embodying the worst of crony-capitalism on a show that tended to favor capitalist utopias. Ironically, while Deep Space Nine was overall darker, they pulled the Ferengi into the gray range, even introducing a number of social reforms during their run and having the Alpha Quadrant be saved by a Ferengi.

Music

Dave Mason's "We Just Disagree."

There ain't no good guys, there ain't no bad guys. / There's only you and me and we just disagree.

Tabletop Games

Until recent editions, this was the case between the naive, but swiftly learning Tau Emptire and the jaded, hardened Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40,000. However, the optimistic and idealistic the alien Tau were found by, at least by some members of the fanbase, to be too idealistic and utopian to fit into the settingnote This might be an opinion about 5 or 10 years in the making. The Tau have since been "greywashed", and while they are they do fit the setting's equivalent of the The Federation, some recent fluff has stated that they may use concentration camps and "re-education" policies on worlds where the Imperium's xenophobic policies are too ingrained. The relationship between the Tau and the Imperium are further complicated by practices of Realpolitik and outright alliance by certain planets, though the official position is that the Tau must be exterminated someday.

Theater

An important theme in Lady Windermere's Fan. The woman whom the titular character thought to be irredeemably wicked makes an enormous self-sacrifice for her, forcing her to re-evaluate her worldview. Although evil is a subject discussed numerous times, especially by Lord and Lady Windermere, there turn out to be no wicked characters in the play.

Sylvanian Families is generally this trope. Everybody is nice, except the two fox families; the Slydales and the Renards, who like playing pranks on people. If there's any antagonist more extreme than playing with matches or spraining your ankle, it's probably them playing a harmless trick on somebody.

Video Games

In one of the many endings for BioShock 2, the child you have been taking care of grows up to realize that there is no "evil", only "pain." This is the nicest possible ending, discussing how your Player Character strove to protect innocent children caught up in the carnage of Rapture, but always forgave and spared those who wronged you in the past or got in your way in the present. Following your example, she saves the last of the children and in the end, forgives her mother for all the terrible things she did to her, telling you that not only can she and the little girls you save live happily now, but they opened the door for her mother to do so as well.

In some ways, this is true of the Splicers as well. They're desperately addicted to ADAM, which is basically Fantastic Steroids, and are usually desperately seeking it. They also have largely joined the so-called Rapture Family just to find a way to better their livelihoods — at this stage, they've pretty much hit rock-bottom anyway so they've nothing else to lose. Mark Meltzer admits flat out that if their leader hadn't had his daughter kidnapped, he'd feel sorry for them.

Metal Gear Solid 4 reveals that most of the villains were actually good people whose plan to make the world a better place did horribly go wrong. Most events of the series were actually the villains' attempts to use whatever means neccessary to correct their mistakes.

Used tragically in Mega Man Zero. In the midst of this rebellion, barring the psychopaths (Copy X, Elipzo, Omega, and Weil), no one on either side is truly evil. The Zero series has some of the most sympathetic antagonists (Harpuia being #1) in the whole franchise.

Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire fits pretty neatly here. All the villains are sympathetic and well-intentioned, and realize the error of their ways in the end. One of the villains, Archie, is incredibly friendly even before his official Heel–Face Turn, friendlier than even some rivals.

Tales of the Abyss makes it clear from beginning to end that both sides ultimately want to accomplish the same goal, removing the Score's hold on the world. They just have very different methods on doing so.

In XenogearsAnyone doing bad things is just proven to be manipulated by a sort of cross between a crazy computer system and Giant Space Flea from Nowhere. The guy seen as the Big Bad is actually just misguided rather than truly evil and the hero even forgives him at the end, though he refuses to forgive himself. Another recurring antagonist is a sympathetic character forgiven by the heroes and even comforted by them after his defeat. The two warring nations are shown to be full of mostly good people and make peace. Even the leader of the evil empire is actually on your side for the most part. The entire theme of the game in fact seems to be that the goodness of humanity can triumph even in a Crapsack World. The only truely evil character in the game is an artificial human made by the Big Bad.

The Touhou series is full of Designated Villains who are unilaterally revealed to be Good All Along by the time the game ends - in most cases, your character has a tea party with the Final Boss following their defeat. Bad Powers, Bad People is averted. The only things in the series that could be considered evil at all are the Saigyou Ayakashi, more popularly known as the Cherry Tree of Doom, from Perfect Cherry Blossom (it hypnotizes people into languishing to death under its leaves, and then eats their souls), and the final boss of Subterranean Animism, who flat-out threatens to nuke all of Gensokyo and even then the latter turns out to be under the influence of a temporary but bad case of power induced crazy on top of being much, much more stupid than evil.

Despite that, the heroes are definitely A Lighter Shade Of Gray since the world would be destroyed without them in the games where a world crisis is going on such as Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Perfect Cherry Blossom. However, in some games where the incidents aren't so bad such as Phantasmagoria of Flower View or Undefined Fantastic Object with Shikieiki and Byakuren, every one of them are called out on their actions, including Reimu, so I guess it sort of counts, but... they're definitely the more heroic side still.

Unusually for an Alien Invasion game, Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds has a case of white vs grey. The humans are fighting for their home and way of life, and the martians are only fighting because their home and way of life is dying. This does, however, lead to some rather nasty Fridge Logic in that whichever race you play as, you are dooming the other to extinction.

Dynasty Warriors generally holds to this in its modern installments with the exceptions of Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu, and Yuan Shao. Every one of the major factions is comprised of largely sympathetic people attempting to end the chaotic wars of the terminal years of the Han Dynasty and produce a better future for the greater good of all. However, they disagree, frequently in very lethal ways, about what sort of future it should be and how it should be achieved.

Undertale turns out to work this way. The Random Encounters are just scared, and can all be placated non-lethally. Toriel just wants you to stay in the Ruins where you're safe, and tries her hardest to avoid killing you in her boss fight. Papyrus really does want to capture you to facilitate his long-delayed entry to the Royal Guard, but he's just too kind-hearted to follow through (which, incidentally, is why his entry to the Royal Guard is being delayed). Undyne refuses to accept your mercy, because she is either righteously angry over the monsters you've killed or simply determined to take your SOUL so the barrier can be destroyed, but even she can be made to relent. Mettaton genuinely does want to kill you, but only to prevent the barrier from being shattered, since step 2 in that plan has always been "destroy humanity", and if you overcome him, he decides you're strong enough to prevent it yourself. And Asgore, the creator of that plan, did it in a fit of grief and very obviously doesn't want to go through with it now that his head is clearer. Even Flowey turns out to be a Jerkass Woobie who is only an asshole because he died long ago, Came Back Wrong, and now literally has no SOUL. When he briefly regains one in the Golden Ending, he shatters the barrier himself and apologizes for everything he did. The only unambiguously bad character is The Fallen Child, and even that's not completely certain, since it is implied in the Golden Ending that they wanted to help the monsters of the Underground, but, through a Freudian Excuse, went about it in a less than merciful way, and it's only your action in a No Mercy route that drives them to become the Greater Scope Villain and irredeemably evil.

It can be argued that the only actually possible evil character in the game, is the player themselves. Toying with lives and having the ability to do what they want with the denizens in the game may eventually cause any player to do things that, to them, is only dubiously bad, but is almost maddeningly cruel to the characters in the game. Video Game Cruelty Potential indeed.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt: The Skellige succession crisis. Hjalmar and Cerys are both exceptional candidates for the throne of Skellige and the island kingdom prospers under the rule of either, but in the event that neither are helped by Geralt, Svanrige becomes king through the manipulations of his scheming mother... and he turns out to actually be a decent king himself who ends up uniting the islands, though through considerable force and ruthlessness.

Webcomics

Ursula Vernon, creator of Digger, has complained that she can't seem to come up with a real villain, since all of them have reasons for what they are doing and believe that they're doing the right thing. Some of them admittedly think it's the right thing because they're doing it, yes, or that the ends will justify the means, but no one so far is truly evil. Well, no one except Sweetgrass Voice.

Freefall forgoes villains in favor of lots of geek-tickling tech-talk. Even the Corrupt Corporate Executives tend to be simply narrow-minded and incompetent, rather than willfully malevolent. It's just that they're not smart enough to figure out that AIs have become sentient, and still think that they're just products. It doesn't help that some of the AIs agree.

Gunnerkrigg Court is known for lacking "proper" villains; Coyote is more of a general Trickster, and Ysengrin is simply insane. And Reynardine is... who knows? Tom Siddell confirms this in an interview: "There are no outright evil characters, for example, just situations in which a character might act in a way perceived to be evil."

On the other hand, Diego is a pretty evil character. It's bad enough that he causes the death of the woman he "loves" because she rejected him., but then in this comic, when Jeanne desperately comes to him for help, he just smugly smirks at her fear An alternative interpretation is that he is a coward and strongly in denial. He does seem to be horribly broken after Jeanne dies.

Sort of a combination of the whole buffet line. Definitely a coward, but he did it of his own free will, because he's too petty and selfish to think of anything except how she's getting her comeuppance. Then, rather than face his wrongdoing, he goes into denial; it haunts him for the rest of his life and on his deathbed he claims he was forced to come up with the plan by the same men who asked him if there wasn't an alternative at the time.

El Goonish Shive has no one who does things For the Evulz. Save one bad eggnote and even he had been convinced he was a deific saviour and the world needed him, there are no really evil characters in the comic; all of them so far have either been misguided or acting off their own sense of what's right rather being downright evil.

Not-Tengu may have broken this trend. He enslaves people's minds and even alters them physically to suit his tastes simply because he can, and seems delighted at the prospect of killing anyone who tries to stop him.

Everyone in Broken Telephone is doing what they believe will be best for the greater good. Even the hired assassin, who's there to kill a terrorist.

The first season of Super Friends. There were no supervillains (with the possible exception of the Raven, who put Superman on trial), just Anti Villains who were all doing the utterly wrong thing for what they felt were the right reasons. In the end, they always Saw the Light, Repented for their Wickedness, and never even went to jail.

Phineas and Ferb: On the "white" side, Phineas and Ferb are short on flaws, as are many of their friends. On the "gray" side, While Candace is often the antagonist, she's neither evil nor truly spiteful - only impulsive and a bit high-strung. Buford is a card-carrying bully, but is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who is clearly friends with his "victims". Even the Big Bad Doofenshmirtz is quite Affably Evil, loves his daughter dearly, and is an absurdly Friendly Enemy to Perry. His attempts to take over the ENTIRE! TRI-STATE! AREA! come across as more pretending to be evil to get attention than the evil acts of a power-mad lunatic. Suzy Johnson appeared to be a straight Jerkass in her first appearance, but later episodes revealed that she's a sweet girl whenever Jeremy's not around. The only really unpleasant recurring characters are Doofenshmitz's parents in his tales of his Hilariously Abusive Childhood.

Unsurprisingly present in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Moments after the climax of the second episode, the goddess of darkness, who is effectively the Big Bad of the ponies' entire mythology, runs crying into a hug with her sister and counterpart day goddess. Who instantly forgives her. Indeed, the worst villains in the first season were Gilda from "Griffon the Brush-Off" and the Great and Powerful Trixie from "Boast Busters", who were both realistic Jerkasses rather than deliberately kid-friendly villains, neither of which learned their lessons in their respective episodes. This changed with the season 2 premiere "The Return of Harmony", which featured as its antagonist Discord, a trouble-makingReality Warper with a cruel sense of humor. note But even Discord may be an example of this trope, if you interpret his behavior as Blue and Orange Morality. He eventually got reformed in "Keep Calm and Flutter On". Some of the show's conflicts even border on Good Versus Good, like the Dragon from Dragonshy, who was just trying to sleep until Dash kicked him in the face. Averted by the phenomenally dark King Sombra, and Lord Tirek.

The episode "Bats!" from the same show sets up a conflict between Applejack and Fluttershy. Applejack is the grey morality, wanting to exterminate and/or drive off vampire fruit bats from her farm because it will destroy her crop and her livelihood. Fluttershy is the white morality, wanting to create a reserve on the farm for the fruit bats, arguing that the seeds the bats drop will eventually produce stronger, better apple trees. Applejack initially wins the argument, but events swing it back around to Fluttershy's side anyways.

Kim Possible has the recurring villain Senor Senior Senior. He had (quite likely) built his fortune legitimately: he turns to evil as a hobby (subverting Evil Is Not a Toy), seeing how closely he can mirror a classic Big Bad complete with setting up death traps for the heroes to escape from. In one episode, Sr. Senior Sr.'s fortune is stolen by a swindler, and he tries to get it back by robbing businesses owned by the person who scammed him: meanwhile, Kim attempts to stop him. She is stopped by his son who turns him in, and Kim settles for Senior earning his money back through the reward money that he'll gain for his capture.

In Moral Orel Orel is a genuinely good kid with Incorruptible Pure Pureness. While Moralton has many horrible people (including his own parents), lots of them are sympathetic, most of whom have their own Freudian Excuse. His parents both had issues with their own parents. While Miss Censordoll is pretty awful, she has one of her own (it's hard not to feel bad for her when you learn her mother removed her reproductive system). Reverend Putty is a bit cynical and jaded, but he has his own Pet the Dog moments in regards to Orel and his daughter Stephanie. Joe's a brat who bullies Orel and beats up kissing boys but he's afraid of growing old and didn't know his own mother.

In Skywhales the alien tribe just want to have enough to eat and the skywhales are just animals driven by instinct.

Legends of Chima: On one end you've got the Lions whom are the paragons of good and keep the other tribes in line by distributing Chi, and the Eagles and Gorillas whom are kindly scholars and spiritualists but are quick to ally with the Lions. On the other end you've got the Crocs whom are lead by a prince being manipulated by his sister, the Ravens who are master con men, and the Wolves who are savage and will seize power if deemed necessary. The other tribes fall somewhere in between.

Community

Tropes HQ

TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy